Hasta La Gadget!

How do you deliver online HD video to your television? How about with a hard drive? LaCie just introduced the LaCinema Rugged, a multimedia drive the connects to your computer for loading and then to your HDTV for viewing.

The LaCinema Rugged works with both Windows and Macintosh computers, and offers 500GB of storage–enough for 700 movies, says LaCie. Connect with a USB 2.0 cable to load movies, music, or photos.

When you want to view that content on your TV, connect the drive with the included HDMI cable. The drive supports most standard and hi-def codecs, including H.264, MKV, WMV9, and MPEG-4.

The drive’s design is modeled after the LaCie Rugged Hard Disk and features a scratch-resistant aluminum shell, internal anti-shock absorbers, and a shock-resistant bumper. Get it from the LaCie site for $349.99.

Slowly but surely, Americans with over-the-air TVs are realizing that their analog service will not return. Nearly two weeks after the DTV transition, about 1.8 percent of U.S. households are without digital service, according to data from Nielsen.

That equals about 2.1 million households, down from 2.5 million last week. Since the June 12 switch from analog to digital signals, about 400,000 households have successfully secured digital service, Nielsen said.

The Albuquerque-Santa Fe region remains the least prepared, with about 6.22 percent of all homes without TV service, followed by Austin, Texas with 4.72 percent, and Dallas-Forth Worth with 4.4 percent.

Los Angeles still has the largest number of unprepared households, at 190,549, or 3.37 percent of its population. Last week, that number was at 225,040.

Broken down by race, about 4 percent of African Americans are still without service, as are 2.9 percent of Asians, 2.8 percent of Hispanics, and 1.3 percent of whites.

About 4 percent of people under the age of 35 are unprepared, but less than 1 percent of people over 55 are without digital service.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Sony Pictures and Sony Electronics jointly announced MovieIQ and CineChat, two features that, the companies say, will inspire consumers to buy up new BD-Live enabled players.

Blu-ray devices are now in 11 million U.S. homes, according to Mike Abary, senior vice president of information technology products and personal audio. The format’s sales grow 400 percent during the first quarter, compared to the previous year. Sony also plans to ship a mammoth 400-disc Blu-ray changer later this year, as well as a Wi-Fi-enabled Blu-ray player next month.

That Wi-Fi connectivity is a key point, as BD-Live requires some form of an Internet connection. Think of MovieIQ as a Web-enabled extra, perhaps a form of the IMDB plus a little more, powered by Gracenote. According to Sony, the feature connects to an updated databases that can provide cast lists, but even set details specific to the scene.

The economy – and the tech industry – is still on track for a recovery in the second half of this year, and while the holiday season will not fully recover in 2009, it will be less dismal than 2008, according to analysts from the Consumer Electronics Association.

The recession could end in the late July, early August timeframe, Shawn Dubravac, an economist and director of research at CEA, said at a conference hosted by the association.

Consumers have cut out excess spending, but the good news is that analysts are seeing the same trends during this recession as they saw during previous recessions, Dubravac said. In those cases, consumer spending usually bottomed out before the economy did, so that this point, it can only get better from here.

Dubravac and his colleague Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis for CEA, have been speaking with tech executives who are part of CEA’s advisory panel. On average, “optimists are leading the pack,” Koenig said.

Panel members predicted a 0.5 percent growth for 2009, but a 2.9 percent growth in 2010, Koenig said. “That’s slightly above the current estimate for GDP, so tech will outpace GDP.”

Back in January, the industry was extremely pessimistic, but that has picked up in recent months, Dubravac said. “That’s a good sign before the holidays.”

Holiday 2009 will be “low by historical standards, but better than 2008,” he said.

What will be driving the growth?

Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.

In addition to debuting ten new games for the Xbox 360, Microsoft today kicked of E3 2009 by introducing a number of new features for the console’s online counterpart, Xbox Live, including partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, and the U.K.’s Sky TV.

Music is coming to the platform thanks to an exclusive partnership with Internet radio provider, Last.FM.

The company introduced a number of additions to its existing partnership with Netflix, including the ability to browse categories directly from the Xbox, without having to go through a PC. And users in the U.K. and Ireland will be able to view  movies and TV shows thanks to a partnership with Sky, which offers live TV, including cricket and soccer games, available without the need of any additional hardware.

The platform’s video offerings will be renamed Zune Video, offering video selections in full 1080p.  Zune Video will now be available in 18 countries, up from 8.

A newly announced partnership with Facebook will let users browse photos and enter status updates directly from their consoles. Xbox users will also be able to update users on their statuses via Twitter, thanks to a partnership with that company.